Increasing Interactivity in Virtual Classrooms

Wednesday, March 23, 2011 10:45 AM

Most Webinars and virtual classroom sessions turn out to be talking-head videos (minus the head), and, as such, tend to be passive one-way presentations. But Live Online Learning Activities (LOLAs) provide an alternative, with a variety of approaches to increasing interactivity in the virtual classroom.

Participants in this session will get hands-on exploration of six different approaches to virtual interactivity: 1) The openers that preview main points, orient participants, establish ground rules, and reduce initial anxieties. 2) Interactive lectures combining the control and structure of lectures and the motivation of learning games. 3) Structured sharing activities that enable participants to share their best practices. 4) Interactive storytelling incorporating different forms of narratives. 5) Jolts deliver powerful wake-up calls in a brief period of time. 6) Textra activities combine the effective organization of well-written documents with the motivational impact of interactive games.

In this session, you will learn:

The factors that contribute to the boredom and passivity of Webinar sessions

How to use effective and active openers to begin your interactive webinar

How to use interactive lectures to combine structure and spontaneity

How to use structured sharing activities to empower participants to play an active role in the learning process

How to apply interactive storytelling to encourage participants to create, share, and process relevant stories

How to apply jolts to provide a wake up call

How to implement textra games to incorporate structure and engagement

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers, developers, managers, and others with some previous experience with interactive classrooms.

Sivasailam "Thiagi" Thiagarajan PresidentThe Thiagi Group

Sivasailam "Thiagi" Thiagarajan designed his first computer game using FORTRAN, punched tape, and stolen time on a time-share mainframe at a research center. Since then he has designed, developed, and used a variety of computer and online training games, simulations, and interactive exercises. His current interest in interactive learning is the integration of studying and learning through his library-playground approach.

Tracy TagliatiChief Learning OfficerThe Thiagi Group

Tracy Tagliati specializes in activities-based training for corporate clients in both instructor-led and web-based environments. Tracy’s mission is to help people improve their performance effectively and enjoyably. She has co-authored two books with Sivasailam “Thiagi” Thiagarajan on topics relating to interactive learning techniques, and has presented at numerous international conferences. Tracy is active in ASTD, ISPI, and the North American Simulation and Gaming Association (NASAGA). She holds a Master’s degree from Capella University, majoring in training and performance improvement, a Bachelor’s degree in business education, and several professional certificates.

Mobile Learning Best Practices and Lessons Learned

Wednesday, March 23, 2011 10:45 AM

Mobile learning draws a lot of excitement today, but it is SO much more than squeezing e-Learning into smaller screens. We will explore examples of Mobile Learning initiatives from a range of organizations and the interesting outcomes that have resulted.

Session participants will explore trends and the lessons learned and see various examples.

Judy Brown has been involved in technology for learning for over 30 years, and with mobile learning since 1996. She now works entirely in the mobile learning area with government, corporations, and schools. Judy retired as the Emerging Technology Analyst in the Office of Learning and Information Technology at the University of Wisconsin System. She then founded and was Executive Director at the U.W. System of the Academic ADL Co-Lab with the U.S. Department of Defense. Following U.W. retirement, as a contractor she built and led the ADL Mobile Learning Team. She continues to curate the ADL Mobile Learning newsletter while working on specific mobile learning initiatives with Problem Solutions and others.

Creating Self-paced Blended Learning

Wednesday, March 23, 2011 10:45 AM

Your working culture emphasizes hands-on, real-time application of new skills, and high regulatory standards, and, for logistical reasons, you want to implement fully self-paced programs. So how do you allow learners to apply new skills and knowledge without a synchronous, facilitated event? How do you let learners demonstrate competence, and how do you drive them to existing tools and knowledge sources? Take a lesson from academic distance learning courses that provides learners with all the tools and documentation they need at the start of a program, then leads them through a blended program that plays to the range of learning styles and provides application opportunities.

Participants in this case-study session will explore the strategies employed by UBS to move compliance training to a fully self-paced model, without losing the vital application elements of synchronous training events. You’ll explore options for a self-paced blend – different activities and training modalities that maintain learner momentum and keep the program fresh. You’ll discover the strategies UBS and other clients of Interactive Services used to create “sticky zones” – driving learners to existing tools and knowledge bases, and ensuring they return!

In this session, you will learn:

How UBS met their challenges with a bespoke instructional framework and suite of learning activities

UBSs current, past, and future initiatives in this area

How other Interactive Services’ client strategies address the issue

Best practices for investing a training program with measurable, real-time demonstration-type application activities

Michael Tucci was a technology consultant and implementer for small & medium size businesses. His work in education began as a consultant for PaineWebber where he created their first self-paced Financial Advisor training. After UBS bought PaineWebber, Michael became a Learning Infrastructure Manager and implemented the firm's first LMS Web-based e-Learning offerings. Since becoming e-Learning Manager as well, he led a team that created processes to streamline the production of quality self-paced learning that, relying on both internal and external staff, has led to many successful partnerships within the industry.

Matthew PlassChief Learning OfficerInteractive Services

Matt Plass is based in the U.K. and has been Interactive Services’ Chief Learning Officer for over four years. Matt has been in the training and education industry for 10 years, and has a background in Adult Learning and Instructional Design. He leads and oversees all instructional design and concept development at Interactive Services. Matt’s innovation and extraordinary skill has led him to success in the training and development industry.

Case Study: In-house e-Learning Rapid Development

Wednesday, March 23, 2011 10:45 AM

When you need to develop many e-Learning courses, “fast, faster, and fastest” are terms typically used to describe the process. Can you accomplish rapid, in-house e-Learning development while at the same time keep the e-Learning course from being a dreaded page-turner?

Participants in this case-study session will learn how a Time Warner Cable development team accomplishes e-Learning development in four weeks or less. You’ll learn the processes that allow achievement of rapid development, and how the Learning group became a strategic business partner, established standardized planning, and created approval processes. These achievements led to an effective four-week e-Learning development timeframe, without sacrificing relevant graphics, audio, and customized e-Learning interactions.

In this session, you will learn:

The importance of the Learning group being a strategic part of the business

That proper planning and instructional design don’t have to get sacrificed for fast e-Learning development

How pre-e-Learning development content approval can be fast and effective

That you should not exclude appropriate graphics, audio, and learner engagement in rapid, in-house e-Learning development

Kevin Yount has created e-Learning, instructor-led, simulated field practice, and blended learning products for the telecommunications and retail industries for the past five years. Prior to entering the instructional design field, Kevin taught in secondary education for four years in both urban and rural school districts in Indiana and North Carolina. He holds a B.S. in Business Education from Ball State University, and a M.Ed. in Instructional Systems Technology from the University of North Carolina – Charlotte.

Social Media for Trainers

Much of the current talk on social media and social learning occurs at the “50,000-foot level.” Practitioners complain that it offers few ideas for application to their work.

Participants in this session will get specific, concrete training and learning activities, as well as exercises using popular social media technologies. Effective use of social media technologies can help to enhance and extend workplace training and learning efforts.

In this session, you will learn:

How to define assorted technologies at their root rather than their face value

How to identify opportunities for extending and enhancing current programs beyond traditional confines

How to employ assorted tools in providing pre-, post-, and inter-session learning work

How to utilize social-media technologies to support sustained community

Audience: Intermediate designers, developers, and others with a basic familiarity with popular social media technologies such as Facebook and Twitter. (Note: This is not “Twitter 101.”)

Jane BozartheLearning CoordinatorState of North Carolina

Jane Bozarth is a veteran classroom trainer who transitioned to
eLearning in the late 1990s and has never looked back. As leader
of the State of North Carolina’s award-winning eLearning
program, Jane specializes in finding low-cost ways of providing
online training solutions. She is the author of eLearning
Solutions on a Shoestring, Better than Bullet Points:
Creating Engaging eLearning with PowerPoint, From
Analysis to Evaluation, and Social Media for Trainers.
Jane holds a doctorate in training and development.

Supporting Performance at a Learner’s Five Moments of Need

Wednesday, March 23, 2011 10:45 AM

To successfully perform, learners continually pass through five phases that require support. Typical training industry focus is upon two of these moments of need: 1) when people are learning how to do something for the first time, and 2) when people are expanding the breadth and depth of what they have learned. These first two moments of need are considered the “formal” side of learning. But there’s an informal side as well that comprises three additional moments of need for performers: 3) When performers need to act upon what they have learned (which includes planning what they will do, remembering what they may have forgotten, or adapting their performance to a unique situation.) 4) When problems arise, or things break or don’t work the way they were intended. And 5) When people need to learn a new way of doing something (which requires them to change skills that are deeply ingrained in their performance practices.) Few organizations have addressed these final three needs adequately. And those who do so find that it dramatically strengthens how they meet their formal learning requirements.

Ssession participants will learn how an orchestrated performance support strategy can address all five of these moments of need.

In this session, you will learn:

How to assess the strengths and counter the weaknesses of the Virtual Classroom

How Performance Support fits into your overarching learning and training strategy

How to gain access to a broad range of resources to help you design, develop, and deliver performance support at all five moments of need.

Audience: This session is appropriate for all levels of designers, developers, managers, and others.

Conrad GottfredsonChief Learning StrategistAPPLY Synergies

Conrad A. Gottfredson, the chief learning strategist at APPLY Synergies, has deep experience in organizational learning, collaborative development, knowledge management, online learning, performance support, and instructional design and development. Conrad is the original developer of the Learning at the Five Moments of Need framework now in use around the world. He has worked with many of the world’s largest organizations, helping them attain higher levels of learning agility. Conrad's experience includes the design and deployment of large-scale knowledge-management and performance-support systems within multinational corporations. He holds a PhD degree is in instructional psychology and technology.

Bob MosherChief Learning EvangelistAPPLY Synergies

Bob Mosher, the chief learning evangelist at APPLY Synergies,
has been an active and influential leader in the learning and
training industry for over 30 years, and is renowned worldwide
for his pioneering role in eLearning and new approaches to
learning. Before co-founding APPLY Synergies consultancy with
Conrad Gottfredson, Bob served as the chief learning evangelist
for Ontuitive, director of learning strategy and evangelism for
Microsoft, and executive director of education for Element K. He
is an influential voice in the IT training industry, speaking at
conferences and participating in industry associations.

LxD - Learner Experience Design

Wednesday, March 23, 2011 10:45 AM

In order to create great learning experiences, instructional designers need to ensure that the e-Learning they create is usable and learner-centered. Good usability can't ensure that e-Learning participants will learn (that still requires good instructional design), but bad usability can prevent learners from getting what they need out of an e-Learning course. The fields of User Experience Design (UxD) and Usability Engineering have made huge strides in the last 15 years, and many of the lessons from those fields can help e-Learning designers made better, more effective e-Learning. User Experience Design is dedicated to understanding the end-user and creating the best possible experience for each individual user. UxD can help e-Learning designers better understand their users' abilities, contexts, and constraints. It can also help them learn cost-effective ways to use usability testing to evaluate and refine their e-Learning design.

Participants in this session will learn how to use Ux analysis tools, like field research analysis and personas, how to do a heuristic walk-though of an e-Learning course, and how to do quick and inexpensive user testing.

In this session, you will learn:

How the concerns of UxD professionals are different than the concerns of LxD professionals

Julie Dirksen is a consultant and instructional designer with more
than 15 years’ experience creating highly interactive eLearning
experiences for clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to
technology startups to grant-funded research initiatives. She’s
interested in using neuroscience, change management, and
persuasive technology to promote sustainable long-term learning
and behavior change. Her MS degree in instructional systems
technology is from Indiana University, and she’s been an adjunct
faculty member at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
She is the author of Design For How People Learn.

Assessments as the Core of a Learning Strategy

Wednesday, March 23, 2011 10:45 AM

Training departments often develop assessments and evaluations as a final component of training design, an add-on to content. But assessments and evaluations provide stakeholders critical data regarding workforce capability, and they should be the core of your learning strategy. This session will explore strategies to shift from the common content-centric development paradigm to focus learning strategy on enhanced assessment and evaluation to provide more high-value data to stakeholders regarding workforce capability and training’s contribution to the business.

Session participants will learn techniques for evaluating reporting needs, and explore several designs that could address many of the needs using different content embedding strategies. Understanding that evaluation is a critical focus area for most training departments, participants will learn how to leverage tools to more successfully gather and report on training's contribution to the business.

In this session, you will learn:

How to decide between different content-embedding strategies to use in your organization

Techniques to provide valuable data for ALL levels of evaluation

Techniques to collect multiple measures to validate metrics and enable aggregation or parsing of collected data

Techniques to adapt assessment assets at many levels for reuse in multiple contexts

A simple tool to expand one good question into deep question banks

Audience: Intermediate and advanced designers, developers, and managers who have some experience with authoring, administering, and managing assessments or evaluation programs. A basic understanding of LMS functions and rules, assessment designs and levels of evaluation, and Web page coding is recommended, but not required.

David GlowChief Learning ArchitectBusiness Critical Learning

David Glow is the chief learning architect with Business Critical Learning. With over 15 years’ experience developing and delivering learning solutions, David has been in several roles, including instructor, program developer, department chair, LMS superadministrator and instructional designer. David has worked in higher education and industry with clients ranging from startups to Fortune 100 organizations across several industries.

Collaborating with subject matter experts (SMEs) is key to successfully creating highly interactive online learning activities, especially games and simulations. SMEs do not understand the design and development process necessary to create interactive activities, but without the expert's tacit knowledge it is difficult for designers and developers to build in AI. This session explores factors that enable team collaboration at the program level and at the individual team and project level. Creating interactive online learning objects requires the combined efforts of a domain expert, a project manager, instructional designer, graphic artist, and Web programmers. Members of this team must respect each other's expertise, build mutual respect, and engage in creative idea, design, and code formation. ISD people are experts too!

Participants in this session will learn how formal and informal leadership can increase the potential for team collaboration through documented workflow sharing, visual representation techniques, project management techniques, and especially through user testing. Successful software development workflows combine these factors with an adherence to certain Agile Development methods, emphasizing reflection and a formative evaluation plan. You’ll get case studies for best practices and a worksheet to guide you through a reflective exercise of things to consider with your own team.

In this session, you will learn:

How informal leadership methods can enable collaboration with faculty experts

A micro-collaboration model for engaging expertise sharing

How to create a checklist of operational tasks to encourage team collaboration

What can be done to increase team member passion and involvement in your project

In addition to his role with Web Courseworks, Jon Aleckson serves as an adjunct professor for the University of Wisconsin, Platteville. Jon earned his PhD degree in educational leadership—distance education—at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and uses his expertise as an educational product development specialist. He writes “Managing eLearning,” a blog on current eLearning trends and released his book MindMeld in 2011 with co-author Penny Ralston-Berg.

LMS Selection and Implementation: Avoiding an L-M-Mess

Wednesday, March 23, 2011 10:45 AM

Evaluating, selecting, and implementing a LMS is complex and disruptive. It involves business needs analysis, learning strategy alignment, product evaluation and selection, careful planning, and attention to countless implementation details. You must make complex product configuration decisions that have long-term implications. You must map and migrate data. You must be redeploy, test, and tweak courseware and implement various systems integrations. You must consider sponsors and stakeholders throughout the organization; training, IT, and HR functions must work together effectively to make it all happen.

Participants in this session will learn a proven process for LMS evaluation and selection, and a framework for thorough and effective LMS implementation planning. You’ll learn common pitfalls and how to avoid them. Participants who are considering or embarking on LMS selection and/or implementation will gain invaluable insights into the process and its inherent problems and challenges, and you’ll gain useful methods and information to help you address these challenges in your own organizations.

In this session, you will learn:

How to narrow the field and evaluate the LMS vendors that are right for your organization

How to use scorecards and scoring methods to make objective decisions

The types of configuration decisions you must make — and their long-term implications

How to approach data migration

How to manage courseware migration and interoperability testing

How to develop use cases for user acceptance testing (UAT)

How to establish and maintain effective working relationships with IT and HR

Audience: Designers, developers, and others who can accurately define what an LMS does and have some experience participating in medium-to-large project implementations, ideally with projects that involve technology.

Steve ForemanPresidentInfoMedia Designs

Steve Foreman is President of InfoMedia Designs, a provider of eLearning infrastructure consulting services and technology solutions to Fortune 500 companies, academic institutions, and government agencies. Since establishing his consulting practice in 1983, Steve has spent 30+ years working with forward-looking companies to find new and effective ways to apply computer technology to support human performance. His work includes enterprise learning strategy, LMS selection and implementation, learning-technology architecture and integration, expert-knowledge harvesting, knowledge management, and innovative performance-support solutions that blend working and learning.

Developing e-Learning for a Global Audience

Wednesday, March 23, 2011 10:45 AM

The Nature Conservancy developed, along with the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Program of Work on Protected Areas (PoWPA) e-Learning curriculum. This session describes the issues of working with geographically dispersed SMEs, authors, and developers by illustrating best practices and demonstrating examples. In addition, the session will cover developing for multiple cultures, five languages, and accessibility through sharing our experience with translating content and providing alternative solutions for low-bandwidth audiences.

This case-study session will show participants how to work with a geographically dispersed project team, and how to design content that can be more easily translated in multiple languages. You’ll learn how to design content for multiple cultures and for accessibility.

In this session, you will learn:

How to work with a geographically dispersed project team

How to design content that can be more easily translated in multiple languages

How to design content for multiple cultures

How to design content for varying bandwidth requirements

Audience: Novice and iIntermediate designers, developers, and others with some basic experience with developing courses for the Internet.

Chanda CarpenterLearning ManagerThe Nature Conservancy

Chanda Carpenter is an eLearning Developer with The Nature Conservancy’s Technology Learning Center. Specializing in multimedia and graphic design, Chanda has more than 10 years of experience developing online training and communications programs that focus on delivering an interactive, engaging experience to the user. She has been the recipient of several national awards for her web and print design work. Prior to conservation, Chanda worked in the finance and telecommunication industries.

How Simple Line Artwork Can Teach Concepts and Save Your Company Thousands

Wednesday, March 23, 2011 10:45 AM

E-Learning developers burdened with the task of finding and manipulating stock art and graphics for learning materials can take a lot of time to do it. Not only does a longer process cost companies money, the stock art and software used to manipulate the graphics can add up real quick as well. And more importantly, many companies find manipulated stock art may not effectively teach the concepts they want their learners to understand.

Session participants will learn how the use of simple line artwork in distance learning materials can effectively teach concepts, resonate with learners, be created by less-than-accomplished artists, and help make large cuts to the distance learning budget.

In this session, you will learn:

How to use simple line art to resonate with your audience

How simple line art can effectively teach complex concepts and teach your audience how to become better visual thinkers

That creating simple line art can be done by a less-than-accomplished artist, maybe even YOU

How open source applications can assist the development of artwork, saving your company significant expenses

Audience: Novice and intermediate designers, developers, and others familiar with the basic processes that surround the development of distance learning materials.

Will MillerInstructional DesignerEdline

Will Miller has been involved in almost every aspect of distance learning including instructional design, project management, graphic design, and distance-learning development. Before joining Edline, Will instructed multiple adult-education courses to diverse learners and developed course curricula that gained statewide recognition among community colleges in Illinois. Will holds a M.S.Ed. in Workforce Education and Development.

Ken Torgerson has been involved in technology and education for nearly 20 years, teaching the Hmong language, teaching English as a Foreign Language in Taiwan, and supporting and training K-12 educators and administrators on student information systems for Apple, Pearson, and THiNQ Ed. Ken now devises strategies for improving learning about products at Pearson School Systems. He holds a B.A. in Anthropology from Brigham Young University and an M.A. in Education from the University of Phoenix.